At Midnight
by PsychicDreams
Summary: A fic spawned by the fact that I've seen a few saying Yuuko was related to Watanuki, but what if she was actually Doumeki's grandmother?
1. Chapter 1

_Shizuka watched from his room window, his childish eight-year old eyes taking in the darkened area of the temple with interest as the shadows moved in ways that they should not normally. Then the door slid open to reveal a slim figure leaving the house. It didn't take much to make out his grandfather's form. He was older now, his hair nearly white, but he was as fit as ever._

Then the shadows changed, melted, and reformed into the shape of a young woman. Her hair was long, so very long, and blacker than the night she moved through. She was more than just fashionably slim, her clothes black and laced with silver coloring. And as she watched, she embraced his grandfather tightly.

"My butterfly…my sweet Yuuko…"

He'd never heard such words come from the older man's mouth before. He'd always been so forthright and frank with his grandmother, never a romantic word anywhere that he'd ever heard. There was no passion to be seen, even by a child's eyes, between the married couple, but here was another matter.

Their hands wandered erotically, but Shizuka, being just a child, felt no embarrassment or revulsion, only mere curiosity. When they parted from their heated kisses, the woman's hands, Yuuko, ran over his grandfather's old but graceful face.

"I can…you just have to wish…we can be together forever…"

"No, my butterfly. You know what has to come and if I…" There was a slight motion amid their impassioned whispers and he guessed his grandfather shook his head. "Besides, the balance must be kept. For that wish, I would have to give up something very, very great indeed and what I cherish the most is you and Shizuka."

"How is our grandson?" the woman asked, but there was a very deep and melancholy tone to it.

"Shizuka inherited powerful magic from us, passed through his mother. He will be able to protect the young one in the future." There was a pause. "I know you blame yourself for Keiko's death, but you can't."

"It was your wife who did it! She killed her! She killed her with her hatred and resentment!"

"Shhhh now, it's all right…"

Shizuka watched in fascination as the woman appeared to be crying and his grandfather, unlike all the stern visages and actions he'd ever seen with his grandmother, comforted her so gently.

"I never made it a secret to Haruka that I didn't love her."

"I should have raised Keiko. Then she would still be here…"

"You know you couldn't have. She was a frail but sweet girl. She wouldn't have lasted with those you had to deal with. I **had** hoped that Haruka might accept her if I told her the baby was left by herself because her parents had been killed, but I think she suspected the truth."

He watched as they kissed once more passionately, holding each other so tightly. The whispers were lower now and his ears had to strain to hear them.

"Tomorrow, my butterfly. I will see you tomorrow for our last dance."

"Please…reconsider. Your death will be unbearable to me."

The older man shook his head again. "You will bear my death like you have all the other hardships in your life. Just…take care of Shizuka and that destined one, Kimihiro, for me when I'm not here."

There was nothing more to hear after that, since they just stood there for so long and looked at each other. It didn't take long for young Shizuka to get bored and go back to bed, not knowing that it would take many, many years before the impact of what had happened, and what it meant, to sink in.

"…meki. Doumeki!"

The archer's eyes snapped open to meet a sapphire gaze filled with worry. His lover, his heart, his destined one…It was after his heart stopped pounding, as it always did when he stared into those eyes, that he took in his surroundings. His arm was cut, pretty badly, and his head was in Watanuki's lap. The first thought in his head was not his injury, but that he would have to find an anniversary gift. They'd been dating for a month now.

Yuuko's gaze met his golden ones and he remembered his dream. Or he had thought it was a dream, until she slowly nodded, as if she had read the unspoken question in his eyes.

It made sense. His father had never had any spiritual powers, but his grandmother had always insisted it was his father who was her son and that his mother had married into the family, not the other way around. It had always made him wonder where he had gotten his exorcising ability.

So, in truth…Yuuko was his blood grandmother.

…Now _that_ was a scary thought.

**end**

I'd seen a few fics that hinted Yuuko might be Watanuki's mother, but what if she was actually Doumeki's grandmother? He did say in the manga that his father always tried but couldn't and never mentioned his mother...hence this fic was born. 


	2. Chapter 2

Doumeki leaned back in the chair of the restaurant, staring at Yuuko across the table. He could feel Watanuki's eyes on him. He actually hadn't wanted Watanuki present when he talked with Yuuko, but the boy refused to leave them alone. Maybe he had some internal instinct or maybe he just didn't trust Yuuko or himself. He had no idea what motivated Watanuki to do the things he did.

"Watanuki." Yuuko's voice cut through the thick silence and made the shorter boy start suspiciously.

"What?"

"I don't trust the chefs here. Could you make sure they're making it right?"

Apparently Yuuko knew just the right thing to say, since Watanuki nodded slightly. "Well, I don't trust restaurant chefs as a rule myself, but I think they're--"

"Watanuki. Check."

It became clear to Doumeki that Yuuko didn't want Watanuki to hear what he wanted to know, but the last thing she said couldn't have been worse. It awoke the bespectacled boy's stubbornness and by the set of his jaw, he knew what would be coming. It was time to act fast.

He ran his lips over that stubborn jaw and up to his ear to whisper, watching as Watanuki gave an involuntary shiver. "Please, Watanuki. I don't trust anyone's food other than yours."

His boyfriend blushed in pleasure at the compliment. He was apparently stunned enough that his body went on instinct, and he was already getting out of his chair to wander to the back of the restaurant.

"I should learn that trick," Yuuko teased with her easy grin.

Doumeki didn't smile back as he turned from watching his boyfriend walk away. Damn that ass was cute, right along with the rest of him. "So it's true?"

Yuuko apparently knew what he was talking about and looked away briefly. And yet for all the emotion she had showed in his dream to his grandfather, she didn't even look slightly unruffled sitting in front of him.

"You're my grandmother?"

"By blood, yes," she answered. "Though I was hardly anything more than that to you."

"And my grandmother now--" There was a flash of anger on face and he remembered the words from the dream. "She killed my mother? How?"

That had clenched and finally, Yuuko's dark red eyes met his. It made his stomach clench, because being related to Yuuko…While he had to admit that he didn't see Yuuko as often as Watanuki, he knew that the woman was extremely strange and unnerving. The way she just knew stuff bothered him, especially how she had obviously known what the two boys' feelings were before they did.

"That…woman knew that Keiko was my daughter. She knew that even before she and Mamoru married that he was seeing someone, but even then, she held it against him."

"But then why did grandfather marry her?"

"Mamoru came from a very old family that believed in traditions, especially of arranged marriages. This marriage had been in place for twenty years, even when they had never met. They still hadn't met until their wedding day. He had been raised so, and couldn't break it off. But he wouldn't stop seeing me."

Was it his imagination, or was there a bit of softness in her tone? With Yuuko, he could never be sure. He glanced to where Watanuki had disappeared. They only had a little time left before he would be back.

"When I got pregnant," she continued, "Mamoru was so happy, but I couldn't keep Keiko with me. Being what I am is a dangerous work. I have many enemies. If they knew that I was keeping a child, my own child, with me it would be disaster. So we agreed that he would raise her.

"I had not anticipated the woman's hatred and jealousy of me would make her do what she did to Keiko." Doumeki's eyes glanced down and her hand was shaking slightly. In sorrow? In anger? He didn't know.

"Keiko was a frail woman, someone not built for a lot of stress. That…woman, that Haruka, alternately ignored her every need or found the worst things for her to do. But Keiko never questioned it, soft child that she was. She just did as that woman asked, always trying to please her "mother". She could never know…"

There were so many questions bubbling in him that he wanted to ask, but Watanuki was back. As he watched the bespectacled boy sit down, he felt his confusion slip away to replaced by the calm that had always been with him. The past was the past. There were other questions and there would be other opportunities. Wasn't what mattered the present, not the past?

"What?"

Doumeki blinked from his introspective daze at Watanuki's slightly antagonistic question. He smiled slightly and shook his head. "Nothing." Their fingers twined and he kissed the back of his boyfriend's hand, making red shoot up those pale, perfect cheeks. The present was what mattered.

Yuuko smiled behind her sake dish. 


End file.
